i883. 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



217 



coverer of beet root sugar. He was born March 

 3, 1709, in Berlin, and died August 7, 1782. At 

 that day he ranked among the foremost of the 

 chemists and physicists of his time. At the age of 

 twenty-nine he was elected a member of the 

 "Society of Sciences," at Berlin. In 1744 this 

 society was reorganized under the title of the 

 " Academy of Sciences and Fine Arts," and 

 Marggraf was assigned to the physical section, 

 and in 1760 became the director of that section. 



In 1780 the Academy of Sciences, in Paris, 

 nominated him as foreign member. 



The domain of chemistry was enriched by hinft 

 with a large number of imponant discoveries, and 

 he it was who first appreciated the value of the 

 microscope as an aid in chemical analysis and 

 research. An investigation of the nature of the 

 sap of plants led him to study those constituents 

 to which it owes its sweet taste, and to the dis- 

 covery of a substance present in different plants 

 and exactly like the sugar obtained from the sugar 

 cane of India. He obtained sugar from different 

 plants, especially from the mangolds, now known 

 and cultivated under the name of sugar beets. He 

 also instituted numerous experiments regarding 

 the best method of preparing pure sugar from 

 these plants. Marggraf was a man of science; 

 he never thought of making any practical use of 

 his discoveries, even when he was convinced of 

 their practical value. 



His successor and pupil, Franz Carl Achard, 

 who was born in Berlin, April 28, 1753, and died 

 on his estate in Schlesia, Aj)ril 20, 1821, converted 

 Marggraf 's discovery into a valuable agricultural 

 reality, by devoting his mental and physical 

 strength, as well as his means, to experiments on 

 a large scale. He died before he saw the fruits of 

 his labors ripen. Achard was the founder of the 

 German beet sugar industry. 



The Art which Produces a Cabbage. — At a 

 November meeting of the Academy of Natural 

 Sciences, of Philadelphia, Mr. Meehan exhibited a 

 specimen of a cabbage which had, before blos- 

 soming, grown to the unusual height of three feet, 

 the spiral coil of the stem, which was to the left, 

 having been thus drawn out without any corres- 

 ponding increase in the number of leaf scars. 

 The Cabbage, in its natural condition, is an insig- 

 nificant plant, without any such head of leaves as 

 makes it of commercial value when cultivated. 

 The desired effect is produced by sowing the seeds 

 of the wild cabbage at a period of the year so 

 late as not to allow the formation of flowers, in 



which case the vegetative vigor of the plant is 

 expended in the production of the mass of leaves, 

 which become better developed and denser as the 

 process of cultivation continues. 



Sunken Forests. — In Neltnor"s Grower, Mr. M. 

 S. Hubbell states that Professor Teas, of Missouri, 

 gives us an account of his visit to the sunken 

 lands in Eastern Missouri. Hundreds of thous- 

 ands of acres of dense forest was sunken there by 

 the convulsions of 1812. This sunken tract has 

 since been covered with water from one to ten 

 feet deep, and all timber, including most of our 

 native durable- varieties, has long since perished, 

 except the Catalpa, which though dead and in the 

 water for seventy years, still stands erect. This of 

 course means that the dead trees have all rotted 

 away, except the Catalpas. We refer to the para- 

 graph for the sake of the sunken forest question, 

 — a matter that has had but little scientific re- 

 search. 



Concerning Figs. — There are very many 

 strange and inexplicable things in nature, and man 

 is led by instinct or observation to do many acts 

 which appear also to be strange and contradictory. 

 This thought occurs upon reading Count Laubach's 

 recent report upon fig culture at Naples. One of 

 the most pressing duties of the farmer and fruit 

 cultivator is to wage ceaseless war upon insects 

 which infest and destroy the products of his fields. 

 And yet we have afforded us in the cultivation of 

 the fig a paradox which will surprise most of our 

 readers. The wild fig, which grows plentifully in 

 fig.growing countries, is uniformly perforated by 

 an insect, which bores into the fruit and hatches 

 out a brood of insects, which devour the fruit be- 

 fore they leave their home. It would appear not 

 to be a very desirable insect to have about a fig 

 orchard, but such is not the fact, for the fig cul- 

 tivators of Italy and Asia Minor go into the fields 

 and gather the insect-infested wild figs, and hang 

 them on the branches of the cultivated fruit, in 

 order that the insect may enter it. Can anything 

 be stranger than. this ? The fig-growers think that 

 the entrance of the insects prevents the fruit from 

 faUing off the trees, hastens its maturity, and im- 

 proves its taste. This operation is called caprifica- 

 tion (from caprificus, the Latin name of the wild 

 fig), and the name of the insect tribe is the Blas- 

 tophags. Our farmers would call insect pests 

 with such a name "blast your phizes," no doubt. 



When the insect enters and lays its eggs in the 

 wild fig it does so to winter and secure food for its 

 young. When the eggs are laid in the wild fig 



